


Shadows and Bones

by District447



Category: Bones (TV), NCIS
Genre: Angst, Crossover, Death, Gen, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-28
Packaged: 2018-09-22 10:35:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9604289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/District447/pseuds/District447
Summary: Dr. Temperance Brennan and FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth get a new case that causes more problems than any other case they ever had. In addition to the obstacles of the case, a new enemy arises and this time noone is going to be safe. Rating is M for later chapters. Crossover with NCIS.





	1. Prologue

**Shadows and Bones**

_Prologue_

It was a sunny Friday morning in Washington D.C. At 7.30am all major roads were flowing with heavy traffic and Dr. Temperance Brennan, along with the rest of the scientists were on their way to the Jeffersonian Institution. Dr. Temperance Brennan is the world’s leading forensic anthropologist who works with an insanely talented team of scientists. Her best friend and godmother of her children, Angela Montenegro, is a forensic artist and computer specialist. Angela’s husband, Dr. Jack Hodgins is a renowned entomologist, botanist, and mineralogist, who was gravely injured in an explosion last year and has been in a wheelchair ever since. Their boss, Dr. Camille Saroyan, the head of the Jeffersonian Institute's Forensic Division, a former coroner from New York. This small team is expanded every week with one talented intern from a university; they do their practice in the Institution before finishing their doctorate. Brennan was on her way to work to the lab when she received a text from her father, Max, that he successfully dropped off Hank at kindergarten. The same text was sent to FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth, working at the FBI’s Major Crimes unit and as a liaison to the Jeffersonian Institution. Moreover, he was Dr. Brennan’s husband and the father of her two children. He smiled at his phone when he got out of his car at the FBI Hoover building’s parking lot. He walked towards the elevator and when he got in, pushed his floor’s number. While the elevator was ascending, he tried to quickly think about his to-do list for the day. His thoughts were interrupted when Special Agent James Aubrey got into the elevator on the ground floor.

“Morning, Booth.” Aubrey smiled at him while he held a cup of coffee in his right hand and a half-eaten doughnut in his left.

“Morning. Wait a second! That coffee smells too good!” Booth looked at his friend questioningly “That ain’t FBI coffee, Aubrey.”

“Nope. Got it on my way in. No way I’m starting the day with that pot of crap they make here.” he smiled as he continued chewing off another piece from his beloved food “You should try the coffee shop around the corner, they came up with some crazy spices…”

“No spices in coffee, Aubrey, how many times do I have to tell you?” Booth smiled as they got off on their floor. They continued walking towards Booth’s office.

“No new case for today?” the young agent asked. His friend just shook his head as they stepped into his office “Good, then we can use today to get ready for the Blackwell-case in court next week.”

“Easiest case of the decade, not much to think about. I need to go over this list of schools Bones came up with. Christine is going to school next year and we couldn’t agree on her education so far.” Bones was Booth’s nickname for Brennan, his wife.

“Well, just write up what each of you want and try to find a school for it.” Aubrey said as he sat down into a chair in front of Booth’s desk.

“Yeah, good luck with that.” Booth smirked as he turned on his computer and sat down “By the way, what are you doing here Aubrey? Don’t you have work to do?”

“Oh no, I have plenty of work to do, it’s just it’s before 8am, so officially, I’m not supposed to work yet. But hey, if you want me out of here…” he started standing up.

“Sit down, Aubrey, and help me get some of these awfully named schools eliminated from this list.” Booth said as he pointed to a school with particularly long name on the sheet of paper with the Jeffersonian’s MedicoLegal Lab’s logo on it.

***

Brennan entered her office just a few minutes before 8am. She turned on her computer, took on her lab coat and walked upstairs to brew herself a cup of coffee. She found Camille Saroyan already working on the coffee machine.

“Morning, Dr. Saroyan.” Brennan smiled as she handed Cam her yellow mug.

“Morning, Dr. Brennan. Coffee will be ready in a minute. You are in early today, Booth took the kids to kindergarten?” Cam asked while she took Brennan’s mug and set it down next to her white one.

“No, it was my father, actually. Booth said he wanted to get in early to check out the list of schools I came up for Christine. He thinks we should find a less ‘squinty’ school for her.” Cam just smiled at Brennan’s comment and continued working on the coffee machine.

***

Booth and Aubrey were going through the 3rd school’s webpage when their phones started ringing at the same time. It was a text from dispatch about a new case. Booth shut down his computer and dialed Dr. Brennan’s number while walking back towards the elevator with Aubrey walking behind him calling Dr. Cam Saroyan to notify her as well.

***

Brennan and Cam were just finishing up their coffees when both their phones started ringing.

“Booth.” Brennan said smiling.

“And this is Aubrey.” Cam read the name from her phone.

“This must mean we have a new case.” Brennan said as she stood up and answered her phone.

"Bones, I’ve got good news. Tourists found a skeleton at the Rock Creek Park. Are you ready for a new case?"

“Of course, Booth. Just tell me the address and we’ll meet you there.”

“No, I’ll come and pick you up, Aubrey sent the address to Cam, the squints will roll out in no time as well. Just grab your gear and meet me in the parking lot in 5 minutes.” With that hey hung up and Cam and Brennan went their separate ways in the lab

Aubrey and Booth got off on the same floor and went to their cars, they drove out of the parking lot and while Aubrey turned on his sirens and drove straight towards Rock Creek Park, Booth turned the other way to pick up Brennan.

***

10 minutes later they were driving through the NW 14th Street. It was only 8:20 in the morning, but in Washington D.C. the traffic was hell. There were parts of the town where you couldn’t move an inch within 15 minutes, but there were parts where you could just fly through the city. The egress part of the NW 14th street at the moment was the second one. As the road ended, Booth took a left turn, and after a good 15-20 minutes of travel they arrived at their crime scene. They got out at the same time. Brennan took out her kit from the trunk, pulled out a glove from her pocket, then followed her partner into the woods, where a railed off space could be seen. There was a completely clear skeleton on the ground. Brennan stepped closer to the remains.

"It doesn’t have any flesh. So it’s all yours, Dr. Brennan.” Cam said stepping aside. Brennan turned her attention to the skull and then to the pelvis.

"So, what do we have Bones?" asked Booth standing beside her.

"Male, approximately 20-25 years old, I can see several fractures on the ribs." she leaned closer "And there is significant damage to the C5 vertebra. Angela will be able to tell what caused it."

"Great. Then the skeleton along with soil samples goes back to the Jeffersonian, and the FBI investigators can start searching the area, right?" Aubrey said, stepping out from behind a tree.

Brennan nodded. She took a number of samples from around the skeleton for Hodgins, gave it to Dr. Saroyan, then stood up and took off her gloves. Brennan waited until the skeleton was loaded into the coroner’s van and Cam signed the papers for it. Booth talked to one of the CSIs and instructed them to report to Agent Aubrey who will remain on scene.

Brennan placed her kit back into the trunk and sat back in her seat, Booth sat in beside her and started the engine. Brennan was unusually silent, thinking to herself during most of the ride while Booth kept sneaking glances at her.

“Have you had the time to check out the list I gave you?” she looked at him finally as they turned into the Jeffersonian’s parking lot.

“Only like 3 schools, but that’s gonna have to wait till tonight. But I promise you, I’ll check them out.” Booth smiled at her and they said goodbye with a small kiss.

“I’ll call you when we have something.” Brennan smiled and walked back into the lab. Booth nodded, mainly to himself because Brennan wasn’t paying attention, she was already halfway towards the lab. So Booth took off and went straight to the Hoover building to sit in his office filling out the few usual forms and waiting for Brennan’s call.

***

Brennan first went to the locker room, changed her clothes back and took on her blue lab coat. She dropped by Hodgins’ office and gave him the soil samples. She then went back to the forensic platform and took a step closer to the skeleton. Dr. Saroyan and Wendell Bray, one of Brennan’s best interns, were already standing around the table, waiting for Brennan.

"Have you found anything so far?" asked Brennan putting on her gloves.

"No, we just started it." said Cam as Brennan stood next to Wendell.

"What do you see, Mr. Bray?"

"Multiple fractures on the ribs, traces of trauma on the upper arm, and significant damage to the C5, there is a butterfly-shape of radiating fractures surrounding the whole, so it is definitely a bullet hole." Wendell carefully picked up the mentioned vertebra and took a closer look "Looks like a small caliber but I’ll take some pictures and Angela can tell us what kind of weapon we are talking about."

"Great, Mr. Bray." Brennan nodded “Continue cataloguing the injuries.” that was when Angela Montenegro arrived in her blue lab coat next to Brennan.

"Happy Friday morning everyone. What do we have?" she asked smiling.

"A brand new skeleton." nodded Dr. Saroyan as she pointed to the table.

"And a not so happy morning for this fellow." Wendell noted.

“Well since the remains are so nicely cleaned, I’d like to take the skull for a quick scan.”

"You can have it, we already have samples which Hodgins can work on." Cam pointed to the small bags next to her on a small table.

"Got it." Angela said, then put her gloves on and took the skull from the cold table into her office. She placed the skull carefully onto a small table, turned on her scanner and scanned every inch of the skull. While the program was copying every picture onto the main computer, Angela brought the skull back to the forensic platform to Brennan. She went back to her office, sat down at her laptop and started her facial reconstruction software. When Angela was done with the face, she copied the picture into one of her search engines and started a search in the missing persons’ database. The search was done within a few minutes. No matches.

"Weird. Might find something in the next one." Angela said thinking aloud. The next database was the FBI wanted list, no hit again. The next one was the Navy’s database. She was about to start writing one of her latest case reports to kill time till the search ran, when the laptop registered a match. She opened the case file.

"Corporal James Wayhne. A marine." she read the data "Booth is definitely not going to like this." she shook her head and went straight back to the team. Brennan and the others were still on the forensic platform, investigating the bones.

"I have identified our victim." she said.

"That was really fast, Angela." said Dr. Saroyan looking up from one of the ribs.

"I’ve got a match in the Navy’s database. Our victim is Corporal James Wayhne. "

"A marine? So the FBI has no jurisdiction to continue the investigation." Brennan looked up placing down one of the fractured ribs from her hand.

"Yep." Angela nodded.

"I’ll call Booth." Brennan said, then took off her gloves and dropped it into the bin next to the table. She quickly went into her office, picked up her phone and dialed Booth’s FBI office’s number. After a few minutes of silence she heard his familiar voice.

"Special Agent Seeley Booth."

"I have an update for our newest case." she said quickly.

"That’s good news Bones! What did you find?"

"Well the bad news is that Angela identified our victim…"

"But that is good news Bones." Booth said interrupting her.

"The fact about who the victim is, isn’t so good. Corporal James Wayhne, a marine. "

"Are you kidding me?"

"You know I don’t do that. I hope you also know that since the victim is a marine, the FBI has no jurisdiction to carry out an investigation, so you’ll have to contact NCIS…"

"Oh yes, the good old inter-agency cooperation, Bones. I am on my way to the Jeffersonian, I’ll call the NCIS from the car, tell them we have a DB that belongs to them." with that they hung up. Brennan couldn’t do anything but wait for Booth’s arrival along with the NCIS. They couldn’t start any examination, because that could tear the case apart in court.

***

15 minutes later Booth appeared in the hallway, alone. He used his card in the reader and stood next to Brennan on the forensic platform. He took a moment to look at the remains.

"Booth. Where’s the NCIS?" Brennan looked at him and he turned to face her.

"On their way, I got here earlier. They are sending two agents, they will look over the evidence and decide if they leave the whole investigation to us, or if they want to cooperate…"

"Or we might not get the case at all. Remember, we have no jurisdiction…"

"A little optimism, Bones, that’s all I’m asking. Maybe the Jeffersonian can cooperate with them, and I am your partner a really charming person, so they can’t say no to me. I know the FBI agent, Tobias Fornell, who works with the NCIS on some cases. I don’t think this cooperation is a question at all. "

Before Brennan could answer they heard Dr. Saroyan’s happy voice from the background along with two unfamiliar voices. Brennan and Booth turned to the entrance at the same time. Cam entered with two strangers. One, a young, blonde woman, possibly in her early thirties, and the other, a middle aged man with olive skin and dark brown hair. They were both smiling. Booth immediately recognized the shining gold badges on their belt: the NCIS badge.

"Our agents." Booth whispered to Brennan, then left her at the table and went towards the agents, smiling, slightly pulling his suit to his side so his FBI badge was in clear view.

"Welcome to the Jeffersonian Institution!" Booth smiled and shook hands with the man "Special Agent Seeley Booth, FBI."

"Special Agent Nick Torres, NCIS." the man said, then the FBI agent shook hands with the woman.

"Special Agent Eleanor Bishop, NCIS." the woman smiled.

"Could we see the body you were talking about?" asked Torres smiling. Brennan left the platform and stood in front of the two agents with a cold look on her face.

"Dr. Temperance Brennan." she said, shaking hands with the agents who also introduced themselves.

"So, where’s the corporal?" Bishop asked them slightly annoyed she had to come halfway through the city Friday morning.

"We only have the skeleton. There is no flesh on the remains, but since we identified him as a Corporal James Wayhne, we couldn’t touch the body until you arrived." said Brennan in a calm tone, then led the agents up to the table onto the forensic platform.

"Nicely destroyed by Mother Nature." Nick added.

"It is far from being certain whether nature or somebody else did this." Brennan answered.

"But hopefully this has nothing to do with cannibals, or flesh-burning-eating people, and only Mother Nature, or someone deliberately decomposed the corporal." added Booth quickly.

"You know what? I’ve read that you are really big experts on cases relating to bones." Bishop said turning to Brennan then to Booth smiling "So I have no problem sharing the investigation. I want to catch the bastard who did this to Wayhne. "

"I don’t consider this whole thing as a very clever idea because of our boss… but I don’t want to be the one who stops the investigation." Torres nodded.

"That’s great, so the Jeffersonian squints can work on the evidence without any problems." Booth smiled at Brennan and the two agents.

"That’s correct. We just want copies of everything." Torres added "Our boss is a little bit, how should I say…uhm… sensitive to these things. Not to mention, that the FBI is not his favorite agency. No offense, Agent Booth."

"None taken. Besides, come on, the inter-agency cooperation between will never be perfect, we all know that."

Brennan wanted to say something else, but Bishop’s cellphone’s ringing interrupted her.

"Sorry, it’s our boss. I think it’s time for us to go. "

They said goodbye and the two NCIS agents left the Jeffersonian.

"Booth. Are we going to have any trouble with NCIS?" Brennan turned back to the table.

"Possibly." Booth nodded and looked at Brennan "I’ll make some copies of the papers we have right now. I’ll come back after that, maybe you or the squint squad will have something by then."

***

Not long after Booth left, Dr. Jack Hodgins wheeled up onto the forensic platform with Special Agent Aubrey following him.

“Agent Aubrey, you just missed Booth.”

“Where did he go?” Aubrey asked as he clearly tried to swallow the last bit of food he ate before stepping onto the platform.

“Hey man, no food on the forensic platform.” Hodgins smirked. He proceeded towards the platform’s computer to pull up the results he just sent over.

“Booth went back to the FBI to make copies of what reports we have so far.”

"Copy some papers? Booth wouldn’t do that." Hodgins noted.

"He has to do it. The NCIS needs the papers. "

"NCIS? What is NCIS?" Aubrey looked up from the skeleton.

"Aubrey, I thought that when you work for the FBI you know all the abbreviations." Hodgins laughed.

"NCIS stands for Naval Criminal Investigation Service." Brennan added while she was picking up the C5 vertebra “Have you seen Wendell?”

“Yes, he is with Angela, working on the wound reconstruction on the C5.” Hodgins nodded while continued to type on the keyboard. Wendell arrived a few seconds later.

“Mr. Bray, the NCIS agreed to a joint investigation.” Brennan said while she was focusing on the remains.

“Great, then let’s start that investigation.” He said, pulled on a pair of gloves then leaned closer to the bones "I see numerous fractures on the ribs and there are also some longitudinal cuts here." Wendell pointed at the ribs "Looks like they were caused by a knife." he took some pictures.

"However those are different fractures on the ribs from the right side." Brennan pointed out. Wendell took a closer look.

"Yes, those were clearly caused by blunt force trauma.”

“Maybe somebody hit him on the ribs. That can hurt like hell, and can paralyze the victim for a short time." Aubrey added from behind them. Newer pictures were taken.

“Angela will scan the bones was we have finished the preliminary examinations. Once we have identified peri- and ante mortem injuries she can run a simulation.” Brennan explained then started examining the bones again. She picked up one of the ribs which had two types of fractures on it. She placed it under the Macro Cam, which magnified the bone’s surface and put up the picture to the monitors on the platform.

"Do you see this cut here?" Brennan pointed out one of the longitudinal cuts.

"The upper part of the knife left a jagged cut on the bone, but the lower part is clean cut." Wendell explained.

"And what does that mean exactly?" Aubrey asked while looking at the monitor.

"Only one type of knives leaves marks like these." said Hodgins wheeling closer to the skeleton "Marine knives."

"Exactly." Brennan nodded.

"That narrows down our suspects." added Wendell.

"Yeah, from the estimated 4,5-5 billion people who would commit murder to approximately 320 thousand. Booth will be so happy to hear about it." Aubrey said mockingly.

***

Meanwhile Booth was sitting in his office, waiting for the papers to come from the guy who was sent down to copy them. He was looking through the list of schools, trying to wrap his head around what could possibly be a good school for Christine. Caroline Julian, a prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s office interrupted his thoughts.

"Agent Booth, my favorite agent. Agent Lamorse said in the hall, that I should give these papers to you." said Caroline as she stepped into Booth’s office, showing the pile of papers in her hand "I assume these are for your newest case." she added smiling, putting down the papers on the desk in front of Booth.

"Thanks Caroline. I’ve been waiting for Lamorse to copy those few pages for like an hour now. If I knew that it would take this long…"

"You would have copied them yourself, cherie?"

"No way, I would have held my gun to his head." Booth said laughing “I have to meet up with NCIS to give them these, we have a joint investigation with them.”

“Good Lord, you come across a marine?”

“Yep. See you later, Caroline.”

***

As soon as Booth got out of the elevator, he took out his phone and dialed the number of the NCIS office.

“NCIS. How can I help you?” he heard a female voice while he walked towards his car.

“I’m Special Agent Seeley Booth from the FBI. I would like to talk to Special Agent Nick Torres about an important case.”

“Just a moment, sir.” the woman said as Booth got into his car. While he waited for the switch to Nick’s line, the phone was playing the American anthem to Booth’s surprise. Then he heard a small click and the familiar voice of the agent.

“Special Agent Nick Torres, NCIS. Who is it?”

“Seeley Booth. Remember me? FBI guy…”

“Of course I remember.” Torres said, “How can I help you, Agent Booth?”

“I’ve got your papers and some updates on the case. Care to meet for a coffee while we talk it over?”

“Sounds great.” Torres nodded to himself, since Booth could not see him obviously. They fixed the place quickly. They were going to meet at the Royal Dinner, which was Booth, Brennan and their squint squad’s favorite place. Booth dropped his phone into the seat next to him along with the files then started the engine and left the garage of the FBI’s Hoover building.


	2. Shared Jurisdiction

_Shared Jurisdiction_

It was already 11 am when Special Agents Alexandra Quinn and Timothy McGee of NCIS arrived at their workplace. Their boss, Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, didn’t like to see anyone being late, but for them, today was an exception. McGee and Quinn had been on a stake out till 3 am, so Gibbs allowed them to come in hours later than usual. Quinn stepped out of the elevator, smiling, McGee followed her with a serious expression on his face. They each had a big coffee in their hands.

“Come on, McGee! Be happy we caught that van and check its plates. Otherwise we would still be sitting in that alley.”

McGee didn’t say a word, just sipped from his coffee, he was too tired to argue with her. They both sat down at their desks, and put their guns into their desk’s upper drawer.

"Where’s Torres?" Quinn asked looking around the office. Bishop looked up from her computer screen.

"Went out to the Royal Diner" she said nonchalantly, then she started another search on her computer.

"What’s he doing there?" McGee asked surprised, it was still early for lunch.

"He’s meeting with an FBI agent to discuss a case."

“Wait, we work with the FBI but not with Fornell?” Quinn said as she walked to Ellie’s desk.

“Yes, the FBI caught a skeleton of a corporal in Rock Creek Park and it landed on the desk of the best forensic anthropologist in the country, so we will work together.”

“Does Gibbs know about that?” McGee asked as he slowly sipped his coffee.

“Not yet. Vance will brief him.” Ellie said looking up from her screen again “But we should nevertheless gather everything we can on the corporal.”

“I’ll start with credit card and cell phone records.” McGee offered “Can you give me the name?”

“Corporal James Wayhne.” Ellie said as she clicked a few and the corporal’s name and picture appeared on the flat screen between McGee’s and Nick’s desk. McGee typed the name into his newest search engine to collect credit card and cell phone records while he started looking for any sign of the corporal’s digital life.

***

Nick Torres parked the dark blue NCIS car in front of the Royal Diner. As soon as he entered the restaurant, he noticed Seeley Booth at one of the tables in the back. He walked to the table, smiling, and sat down in front of the agent.

"Agent Booth, you got the files?"

"That’s right." Booth nodded smiling, putting his left hand onto a pile of papers on the table "Around 10 pages."

"10 pages? You just started the case."

"We have all kinds of forms to be filled out and I have Bones’ field report as well."

"Bones?" Torres asked smiling "You mean, Dr. Brennan?"

"Yeah, she got the Bones nickname from me, and I’m the only one who can call her Bones." Booth nodded smiling.

"Look, Agent Booth. I’ll be honest with you. I haven’t read a lot about the two of you, but Agent Bishop kept telling me about your almost perfect arrest record on the way over to the Jeffersonian. I hope we can solve this case together, although I should also probably mention that my boss is probably going to decapitate me for this, especially if we can’t solve it…"

"Don’t worry about it, Bones and I can solve every case we get into."

Torres nodded.

“Do you mind if I order some food? I’m starving.” Torres looked at the menu on the table.

“Go ahead, I already ate mine. By the way, where are you guys at with digging into the corporal’s life? You have better access to it, that’s for sure.

Nick ordered a steak with a big portion of fries.

"We are going through the credit card and cell phone records as we speak. The guys will find out where he was stationed, then we can talk to CO, commanding officer, and find out more about him."

“Good, you let us know if you find anything and I’ll let you know if we have any updates on the body.” Booth smiled, they shook hands and Booth left the diner.

***

Bishop was going through their database for the past hour to find the corporal’s file, but as it turned out, there were quite a few James Wayhne’s in the Navy.

“Finally! I’ve got you!” she said a bit louder than she wanted to, then she sent the marine’s file onto the plasma. Quinn stepped in front of the screen and started reading the file.

"Corporal James Wayhne, 25, graduated at MIT. He worked at Norfolk as a special decoder. No wife, no kids." McGee put up newer information onto the screen.

"I got his bank records, at least from his navy account. Nothing suspicious."

"What do you mean McGee that you got his bank records at least from his navy account?" Quinn asked surprised.

"The corporal has a personal bank account, and I haven’t gained access to it yet. I’m still waiting for the bank’s reply." McGee said simply as he refreshed his e-mails again “If we had access to the corporal’s computer, this would be a lot easier.”

***

Brennan finished the preliminary analysis of the skeleton and now she was helping Angela scan the bones.

“Angela, can you run the wounds against our new limbo database?”

“Of course, Sweetie, but it’s not complete, you know that right?”

“Yes I know. I just want to see if it actually works.” Brennan said as she packed the already scanned bones onto another tray from which she can later assemble the skeleton again on the Bone Room’s examination table. It took another 20 minutes to scan everything, then Angela ran a search in the new limbo database which contained around half of the limbo cases. Limbo cases were never solved, mostly because the victim could not be identified, most of them are from before Brennan came to the Jeffersonian, but there were some that even Brennan couldn’t solve without knowing who the victim was. They identified every wound and fracture and they had cause and time of death, every valuable information that could move the investigation further, but they couldn’t ID the victim and that left them without a possible pool of suspects. While the search ran, Brennan went into the Bones Room, to reassemble the skeleton. While she put every piece of bone back into its place on the table, she reexamined every wound, fracture and abnormality they catalogued so far. A few minutes later Wendell came back from his lunch break and helped Brennan with the reexamination. He was going through the spine, when he found a strange anomaly on the L2 vertebra as he ran his hands over it.

“Dr. Brennan, there is a cut on both sides of the L2 vertebra.” Wendell said as he pulled the macro cam to his side and put the bones under it. The camera magnified it and projected the image onto the monitor next to them. Brennan was going through the ribs when she found a small nick as well.

“And look at the 12th ribs, Mr. Bray. There is a small nick on each rib close to the spine.” She pointed out.

“Wait a minute.” Wendell had a thought “Small cuts and nicks on the L2 vertebra and both of the 12th ribs. Let’s see the T12 vertebra. If it has matching cuts, I think I know what happened.”

“Without reviewing everything it would be too soon to jump to conclusion, Mr. Bray, but what do you have in mind?” Brennan said as she picked up the T12 vertebra and handed it to Wendell. It had the same cuts as the L2.

“In my opinion, these nicks and cuts indicate that the victim’s kidneys were removed, and not by a professional.”

Brennan reviewed the affected bones.

“I concur. There is no remodeling, this very well could be cause of death.”

“A kidney removal?” Wendell looked surprised.

“Yes, if it was not done by a professional, the abdominal aorta could easily have been cut in the process, causing the victim…”

“To bleed out.” Wendell finished her sentence, nodding.

“Please reexamine the bones thorax and the skull, Mr. Bray. There are a number of organs that can be sold for a great price on the black market, the corporal might have lost those as well. I’ll talk to Booth.” Brennan said as she took off her gloves and stormed out of the room.

Brennan was on her way to her office to talk to Booth, when Angela ran out of her office, looking for her best friend.

“Sweetie, there you are!” Angela caught her just before Brennan stepped through her door.

“I was about to call Booth to give him an update.”

“Yeah, well wait until you see what I’ve found. I had 3 matches in the limbo database.”

“Based on what?” Brennan asked as they walked back to Angela’s office.

“Based on some little nicks the scan found on the L2 and T12 vertebrae and some of the ribs.” Angela explained. When they reached her office, she pulled up the software that scanned the bones and showed the nicks the computer found.

“Mr. Bray indicated those cuts to have come from both kidneys being removed by a non-professional. Did you find any other cuts Mr. Bray may have missed?”

“There were a few, really small nicks that could be easily overlooked during the preliminary examination.” Angela nodded and a few red circles appeared where the software registered the nicks “In the eye sockets, on the costal cartilages and on the left 8th and 9th ribs.”

“Those are consistent with the eyes, the liver and the spleen being removed.”

“Jesus Christ, they practically sold every part of the guy?” Angela shook her head.

“Selling organs on the black market is very profitable, Angela. A kidney could cost more than 200,000 dollars.”

“That’s… a lot of money.” Angela nodded.

“We need to reexamine the cases from limbo you found a match with. Can you check for other nicks and cuts on the scans while I reassemble the skeletons?”

“Sure thing, Sweetie.” With that Brennan left for Limbo, and on her way she called Booth to let him know what they are dealing with.

***

Seeley Booth was on his way to the NCIS when he received the call from Brennan about the missing organs and cuts on some of the bones. When he arrived, Booth went straight up to the director of the NCIS. Director Leon Vance. Booth quickly closed the door behind him as soon as he entered the office. As he turned around he came face to face with Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Director Leon Vance. They all shook hands and introduced each other.

"To what do we owe your visit, Agent Booth?" Vance asked as he sat back down behind his desk.

"We found a body at the Rock Creek Park this morning. The scientists of the Jeffersonian Institution identified the deceased as Corporal James Wayhne. Since only the NCIS has jurisdiction in cases involving a marine’s death, we are asking for a joint investigation."

"The FBI is asking for a joint investigation? What happened to Thobias?" Gibbs grunted. Special Agent Thobias Fornell was the liaison agent between the NCIS and the FBI. Booth had already spoken to Fornell about the case.

"Agent Fornell told me that the NCIS is cooperative, and that he saw no problem in a joint investigation."

"Agent Booth, if I’m not mistaken, your partner is Dr. Temperance Brennan. Is that correct?" Vance asked, not caring about Gibbs previous comment.

"Yes, Bones... I mean, Dr. Brennan is my partner. We solve cases together, mostly cases where the body found is in really bad shape."

"I heard you have a great reputation. You could solve cases that others couldn’t."

"Yes, sir." Booth nodded. He hoped the director was not about to bring up old cases for a chat.

"We have solved cold cases too Leon, that doesn’t authorize the FBI to hold back a case that belongs to us." Gibbs interrupted angrily. Vance didn’t take notice of this comment either.

"Welcome to our team, Agent Booth. I hope we close this investigation very soon and with success." Vance said smiling, then shook hands with Booth. Gibbs didn’t say a word but left the room. Booth was about to leave too when the director stopped him.

"Agent Booth."

"Yes, sir?" Booth turned around to face Vance.

"Just a moment. I would like to give you some advice about Gibbs. He can be really stubborn sometimes, but he is truly one of our best agents."

"Of course, sir, and thank you." Booth said and sat back on the chair he was previously sitting on, and then listened to Vance’s little monologue.

***

Meanwhile Torres, Ellie, Quinn and McGee continued to work on the case, gathering every little detail. McGee was going through the corporal’s e-mails, and tried to get into Wayhne’s personal bank account. He didn’t have any luck with that, the bank didn’t cooperate until they had a signed warrant. Gibbs came down from Vance’s office quickly.

"Bishop. I need to talk to you." Gibbs said coldly and continued to walk towards the elevator. She knew what was coming. It was one of Gibbs’ habits to debate about certain things in the elevator, so that no one could run away from the conversation. Ellie only ever had one of these ‘elevator-talks’, when she had tried to help her friend without telling anyone. She stood up and started to walk towards the elevator and glanced back at Torres before she entered. Nick was usually partnered with Quinn or Bishop during their investigations and he absolutely understood the situation. Only one agent had more of these ‘elevator-talks’ than him, but he was no longer on their team and he never actually met Tony DiNozzo, just heard a lot of stories about him. As Ellie entered the elevator Gibbs pushed the down button and then the red emergency stop button. The shining white light that was flowing in the elevator previously was replaced by a darker blue shade of light.

"Look, Gibbs..." she started, trying to avoid the whole situation.

"No, Bishop. You made a mistake. How many times do I have to tell you guys, that we do NOT involve the FBI in our cases?"

"They are the best crime-solving partners in the USA. Plus the body is only a skeleton. Dr. Brennan is the best forensic anthropologist in the country."

"They can be the world’s best crime-solving partners for all I care. When a marine dies, the NCIS investigates, not the FBI. There are more than a 100 million people who commit crime in the USA, those can be the FBI’s problem, but marine cases are ours."

"I know Gibbs, but..."

"No buts, Bishop. You go back, say goodbye to your FBI friends and tell them that they have till 6pm to send the corpse to Ducky." with that Gibbs tapped the emergency button, making the elevator move again, then pushed their floor’s number. A few seconds later the elevator came to a stop and she stepped out first. Gibbs didn’t follow her, and as Ellie saw that, she went back to her desk where she saw Booth talking to Torres.


	3. Ghosts of Limbo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay. The new semester started at uni and things got a little crazy. Enjoy the new chapter :)

**Shadows and Bones**

_Chapter 3 – Ghosts of Limbo_

Special Agents Quinn and Torres were drinking their third coffee of the day as they went through boxes of old cases with ties to organ trafficking. They were sitting at a table in the garage next to the evidence locker. Not getting any natural light didn’t help their jobs at all.

“It’s a lot more than I imagined.” Quinn sighed as she dropped another casefiles into the ‘ _not relevant_ ’ pile.

“Yeah well, selling organs is a big business all over the world. You know that a kidney could be worth up to 300,000 dollars? I mean, it’s not the easiest way to make some quick money, but if you have the guts for it and have the contacts to sell the stuff, you are in for a big payday.”

“Which means there is not a lot of people who can do that. Contacts like that are not easy to come by.” she dropped another file into the previous pile “We need more info on precisely which organs the victims were missing, otherwise, this is just a big waste of time.”

“You tell that to Gibbs.” Torres laughed, “For now, let’s look at kidney and liver sells.”

They spent another hour reading countless casefiles when a report reminded Quinn of something.

“Nick, we are looking at this from the wrong angle!”

“What do you mean?”

“We should be looking for fresh transplants. Let’s see who got kidney and livers in the past few weeks and check where they were previously on the waiting list. Someone who is months behind could have gotten desperate.”

She stood up and walked to the computer a few steps behind them. While she typed and clicked Torres got to thinking too.

“Isn’t it weird that they shot the victims? I mean, there are much cleaner ways to kills someone and then take their organs. Plus, if you are shooting someone, you run the risk of doing more damage than you want.” as he finished, the elevator dinged behind them and forensic specialist Abby Sciuto walked out.

“Maybe the killer is not strong enough to kill them otherwise. I mean, a broken neck would the easiest and cleanest.”

“That’s true, Quinn; but then you lose circulation.” Abby smiled as she stepped in to help her colleague with hospital records, “If you know where to shoot, you might paralyze the victim, but keep the circulation going long enough to harvest the organs you want.”

“That makes sense.” Torres nodded as he put down his coffee mug. His thoughts were all over the place with this case. He saw many things while being undercover, but he was lucky to have stayed out of the organ trafficking game. He mostly went after government intel or drugs.

“Okay, but don’t you need some kind of lab to do this? This isn’t exactly an easy hand-over in an alleyway.”

“Well, you need a place where you can create a sterile environment and where disposing of a body is not conspicuous. I’d say labs or clinics, even vet clinics.”

“But also abandoned houses outside the city where the next neighbor is a few miles away.” Torres said as he started walking up and down behind Abby and Quinn.

“So basically, a lot of places.” Quinn nodded while she kept her eyes on the screen. Abby was running an algorithm that searched for recent transplant records and compared it with names on the waiting lists.

***

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Brennan and Wendell were rearticulating the skeletons from Limbo. Victim number 2 was found 10 years ago and with a huge part of the skull missing, which made the identification impossible. Brennan finished placing the last rib onto its place and took a few steps back to let her eyes take in the view. A great chunk of the skull was missing, creating a gaping hole in frontal bone and the left zygomatic bone.

“Okay, Mr. Bray. We need to re-examine these three remains, starting with Limbo case nr. 2007/01/15/2235”

“Okay, starting with sex, the slightly raised ridge across the central surface of the pubis, and the anteriorly-positioned mandible indicates that the victim is female, as noted in the casefile.” Wendell said as he pointed to the mentioned parts and took a quick glance to the file in his hand.

“I agree.” Brennan nodded “The medial clavicular epiphyses are almost completely fused. Which means what, Mr. Bray?”

“That the victim was between 24 and 32.” Wendell calculated as he took the L2 and T12 vertebrae out and put them under the micro cam “She has the same cuts as the corporal, which means, her kidneys were probably taken as well.”

“Catalogue every injury and anomaly on the remains, Mr. Bray. I’ll see if Angela has found anything else.” with that Brennan took off her gloves and was about to walk out the room when Angela walked in.

“Angela! I was going to see you.” Brennan smiled.

“Well, I saved you the trip. I have found bullet damage to the C3 on nr. 2235.” Wendell picked up the C3 as Angela mentioned it and placed it under the microcam.

“You are right, Angela.” Wendell nodded.

“Of course, I’m right.” Angela smiled “But there is more.” she tapped a few on her tablet and brought up the scan of the skeleton “As I have said before, there were cuts in the eye sockets, on the costal cartilages and on the left 8th and 9th ribs in all three limbo cases as well as on the corporal’s body.”

“So, same nicks and cuts on all four remains, except for the bullet wound?” Brennan was thinking loudly “The damage was on the C5 with the corporal. But it was on the C3 with this victim.” she pointed to nr. 2235. Wendell walked over to the other table.

“This is Limbo case 2008/03/25/1545. There is significant damage to the C6 vertebra.” then walked to the last table “And this is Limbo case 2012/06/24/2013. Significant damage to the C7.”

“The bullet wounds’ placement is different for each victim, yet they have the same nicks and cuts, which indicate organ trafficking.” Angela organized their thoughts into one sentence.

“Could this be one person’s work? Or maybe an organization?” Wendell asked as he walked back to his colleagues.

“We need more evidence.” Brennan said. She was extremely frustrated “Angie, can you try and identify these limbo victims? You have better technology now than when they were found.”

Angela nodded and went over to pick up the three casefiles to see what was done to identify them.

“Victim nr. 2235 is not going to be easy as a big chunk of her skull is missing, but the two others could be easier. This here says, that a successful facial reconstruction was made, however, no matches were found. I have access to better databases, maybe something will pop up.” she smiled “I’m also working on figuring out what kind of bullets were used. I’ll let you guys know if I find anything.” with that she left.

“I’ll go over the other two remains, re-examine our findings.”

“Good, Mr. Bray. Let me know, if you find something.” Brennan smiled and left him to work alone. On nr. 1545 the temporal, zygomatic, and nasal bones showed complete, comminuted fracturing. That indicated a serious blunt force trauma, which could have caused a fatal brain hemorrhage. Wear on the mandibular teeth suggested an age between approximately 30 and 40 years. Wendell read the rest of the report and continued going through the skeleton, bone by bone, looking for any anomaly, any cut, nick, or any other injury that was missed during the initial investigation.

On nr. 2013 the broad mandibular arc indicated that the victim was male, and based on the shape of the distal tibia, in his late twenties. There were fractures on the left orbital socket, maxilla and zygomatic, which indicated that the victim’s face was shattered. Wendell picked up his skull.

“No hemorrhagic staining.” he sighed. It meant that the injuries were although, severe, but they were not the cause of death.

***

While Wendell continued working on the remains, Angela was reconstructing the bullet from the striations left on the vertebrae. The computer copied the indentations of the bones’ surface and recreated a virtual bullet according to them. The virtual bullet gave Angela the caliber and via the striations left on the bullet, she could estimate barrel length, thus come up with a possible make, and model for the gun used.

She scanned all four vertebrae and ran the first software on all of them. The recreated bullets matched, they were all the same caliber.

“Hey honey, what are you doing?” Angela was startled as Hodgins wheeled into her office.

“I’m trying to recreate the bullets and figure out what kind of weapon was used. So far it seems we are dealing with a 9x19mm., the program calculated the diameter to .355”.”

“That’s not good. That’s the 9mm NATO, meaning every service weapon across the states. From police to the army and navy and any government agency.” Hodgins looked concerned.

“Exactly, which means it won’t be easy to find a match. It seemed like the bullet burned some striations into the C5 on Wayhne, but I have to ask Brennan to take another look.”

“Could it be that the bullet was so hot when it came into contact with the bone that the striations caused by the barrel burned into the bone?” Hodgins looked surprised.

“Well, honey, Brennan is the expert on that.”

“This whole case sucks. We have almost zero evidence to work with. Unless we identify the other 3 victims from Limbo, I have no idea how we are going to proceed.” Hodgins shook his head while he watched Angela working, “By the way, have you heard from NCIS?”

“Oh yeah, an Abby Sciuto contacted me an hour ago, saying they’ll be sending a list soon. They are compiling a list of patients who had months to go on the waiting list but ended up receiving an organ in the past few weeks. They think those people bought their way onto the top of the waiting list.

“Well, it’s been done before, so, not a bad idea. Okay, I’ll let you work, I have a few evidence to be re-examined from those Limbo cases.” Hodgins smiled. They shared a quick goodbye kiss and he left for his office.

**TO BE CONTINUED**


End file.
